By far the best moment: Tendulkar

Gary Kirsten lauded the team spirit of the Indian team and felt grateful for the time spent with them, while Sachin Tendulkar was still savouring the World Cup triumph. MS Dhoni was his usual calm self.

All three spoke on India's World Cup win that ended a 28-year wait for the trophy, after India's first triumph in 1983.

"It was a magnificent occasion and dream come true for me and the Indian people to win the ICC Cricket World Cup," said Kirsten.

"Every individual I worked with, alongside Paddy Upton and later Eric Simons - we needed to get to know in a meaningful and authentic way what was required to get the best out of him as a player. We treated each individual differently and then set up a team structure and worked on what we wanted to achieve as a team. We set our goals as a team - it became noticeable how much of a team we really were as time progressed.

"I've got nothing but gratitude for this country and for this team after my time with them and after winning on the ICC Cricket World Cup," he concluded.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni gave credit to the team for its performance.

"I don't think we felt burdened to win the World Cup since India's last victory in 1983 - it was an achievement by our country back then," Dhoni said.

He, however, acknowledged that the popularity of the sport in India and the passion of the fans meant the Indian team was expected to win every game.

"Cricket is a popular sport here, we were expected to win every game in this event and people knew we were talented it was an opportunity for us to fulfill. The players were in good nick for the whole tournament and although we struggled on occasion the bowlers did well and we defended modest totals to win the event," Dhoni said.

Sachin Tendulkar had been dreaming of winning the trophy since he was a young boy. He had taken part in five previous World Cups - all of them ending in heart-break with some agonizingly so.

"As a young boy I started dreaming of winning the World Cup and to have now won it, I am still speechless," Tendulkar said.

"It is by far the best moment of my career, I've been dreaming of this moment for 21 odd years and its worth every minute, its been really special.

"It's my sixth World Cup and you can well imagine having played one of them where we lost in the semis and one where we lost in the finals it was really heartbreaking but one should never give up, continue to work hard and not lose hope. My biggest dream was this and I continued to chase it and it came true," said the Indian batting maestro.

Losing finalists Sri Lanka had put on a tough fight for the trophy, and the loss was particularly hard for Mahela Jayawardene who had smashed a brilliant hundred.

"I'd swap my hundred any day for a championship medal," Jayawardene said.

"We fought hard but we had to take wickets and we couldn't seem to get the breakthrough we needed. We knew 275 was going to be a difficult total to chase but they batted really well."

Jayawardene, however, said that his opponents had been worthy champions and praised their momentum in the knock-out phases.

"India are worthy world champions. They didn't start off well but they built momentum. They had an explosive batting line up and they proved themselves in the knock-out stages and did well in the last three games and worthy champions."